Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

New South Wales Implementation Project

Assessing the status, condition and trends of native vegetation communities to support vegetation management in low rainfall cropping lands
Geoff Holden, NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation
National Land and Water Resources Audit, 1999

PDF file

Component projects

About the report

In response to the need for a native vegetation database, the Murray Darling Basin Commission undertook the "M305" vegetation mapping project. This project collected and collated native vegetation data for the basin through a partnership between the Commonwealth Government and the governments of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and the ACT. The key products for native vegetation decision makers have been:

As a consequence of the need by native vegetation planners for a more appropriate database, there have been efforts to upgrade the M305 database. However, while the M305 project has provided a valuable base layer for this work, many problems have been encountered in upgrading efforts, particularly with products for the structural vegetation layer. In addition this upgrading has been undertaken without any guiding standards or protocols, thus prejudicing maintenance of a database for native vegetation that is useful for planning on a Murray Darling Basin basis.

This project presents standards and protocols for the upgrading of the existing M305 native vegetation data base. In addition native vegetation assessment tools have been developed to facilitate database upgrades. This work has been undertaken in conjunction with upgrading of the Walgett Shire native vegetation information set.

The project work comprised the following five components:

Standards and protocols

  1. Standards and protocols for upgrading M305: Details of current custodianship and management arrangements for the M305 vegetation data base are examined in detail, with the focus on the structural vegetation layer.

Pilot native vegetation data set

  1. Upgrading and interpretation of Walgett Shire data sets: Existing data sets for the Walgett Shire have been upgraded to provide products for the Walgett Regional Vegetation Management Committee and to provide a pilot for the upgrading and interpretation of the M305 in other parts of the low rainfall cropping areas.

Native vegetation assessment modelling tools

  1. Native vegetation differentiation modelling tool: An assessment tool has been developed to provide a rapid and cost-effective method for mapping grasslands using satellite images.
  2. Native vegetation 1750 data base modelling: Techniques for 1750 modelling are reviewed and an environmental historical analysis is developed for Walgett Shire.
  3. Agricultural land class assessment: This is a subjective method used for assessing the relative merits of land for agricultural production, which was undertaken for the Walgett Shire, with the aim of providing an expedient method for building socio-economic parameters into native vegetation management.
Native Vegatation Summary cover

Before you download

Most publications are downloadable as PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader  is required to view PDF files.

If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.

Key

   Links to an another web site
   Opens a pop-up window